Integrating your online store and ERP. What a wholesaler needs to know

You sell through an online store, your inventory lives in your ERP and your accounting in yet another package. Each system does its job fine. They just don’t talk to each other. So someone sits in between, retyping orders, updating stock and checking invoices.

Sound familiar? You’re not the only one. At many wholesalers, that one colleague is the integration.

What is an integration, really?

An integration makes data flow automatically from one system to another. No exports, no Excel, no retyping. An order in your online store is in your ERP within a few minutes. When the stock in your warehouse changes, your online store sees it too.

It sounds simple. The difference is in the details.

Which data needs to flow?

For most wholesalers, it comes down to five flows.

• Orders. From your online store or marketplace to your ERP or WMS, including customer details and shipping method.
• Inventory. Back to your online store, even when you work with multiple warehouses or sales channels.
• Products and prices. One source of truth, including B2B prices and tiered pricing.
• Status and track & trace. Shipping information automatically back to your customer.
• Invoices and payments. To your accounting, reconciled with your bank or payment provider.

Don’t start with everything at once. Pick the flow that costs the most time or errors right now. Usually that’s the orders.

Off-the-shelf connector or custom integration?

Honest advice. For simple situations there are ready-made connectors, often for a few tens of euros a month. Does an app like that work for you? Then use it.

A custom integration pays off when

• you work with multiple warehouses, sales channels or entities;
• you have B2B prices, bundles or customer-specific agreements;
• errors must not go unnoticed;
• you want to extend the integration later without starting over.

At wholesalers you see exactly these points come back often. That’s where an off-the-shelf app quickly hits its limits.

	Off-the-shelf connector	Custom integration
Fits	One online store, one ERP	Multiple warehouses, sales channels or entities
Prices	Standard prices	B2B prices, bundles and customer-specific agreements
Errors	Often only noticed later	Don’t go unnoticed
Extending	Within the limits of the app	Extend later without starting over
Cost	A few tens of euros a month	Fixed project price, then optional management

Where does it often go wrong?

Building it is rarely the problem. It goes wrong in the arrangements around it.

• Nobody knows how it works. The integration was built once, but nothing was written down.
• An update brings everything to a halt. A system changes and the integration breaks. You only find out when a customer calls.
• No alert on errors. An order gets stuck and nobody sees it.

That’s why a good integration always has documentation, monitoring and someone who adjusts it when something changes.

What does it cost?

That depends on the number of systems and the complexity. You get a fixed project price up front. After that you can choose fixed monthly management. Then I keep an eye on the integration and adjust it after updates. How that works is on the pricing page.

Weigh that against the hours now spent on retyping and fixing errors. A handy calculation. How many hours per week does the task take now, and what does that hour cost? You often earn back the investment within a few months.

How do you start?

Write down which systems you use and where things get stuck today. That’s all you need for a first call. You’ll hear right away whether custom work makes sense, or whether an off-the-shelf app is enough.